Digital Magazine and Newspaper Editions: Best Practice Cases
Vendor Description

Vendor Name
Zinio (www.zinio.com)
History and Background
Zinio was established in 2001 under the name Zinio Systems. Zinio was one of the first
digital edition providers with a standalone viewer (designed in collaboration with
IDEO). In early 2002, the Zinio service launched with several titles, including those
from technical publisher IDG. Support for using the Zinio reader on an Apple
Macintosh and for rich media embedded in digital editions was released in April 2003.
A Web browser-based reader, Zinio Express, was introduced in 2004.
In 2005, Zinio saw tremendous growth; The Zinio technology was adopted by McGraw-
Hill Education to launch an e-textbook initiative, publishing services expanded
geographically to Europe and Asia, and Zinio acquired Blue Dolphin Group, an online
magazine retailer, giving the combined company the ability to market print and digital
editions from a single service.
2006 and 2007 saw continued global publisher adoption and growth. Interest from
other industries, including Disney in entertainment, allowed Zinio to expand basic
technology offerings in more consulting-related growth services and innovation efforts.
The combination of technology and marketing services was focused at providing a full-
service solution to the publishing industry.
Zinio introduced to publishers the ability to create micro-sites, or white-label
newsstands and bookstores, for e-commerce purposes. Toward the end of 2007, Zinio
partnered with Barnes & Noble Booksellers to provide “see inside” the book technology
across bn.com and launched a mobile newsstand spun out of Zinio Labs for the iPhone
and iPod Touch. In 2008, Zinio released its online reader and the world’s first digital
magazine global newsstand.
Today Zinio supports over 1,000 magazine titles from 350 publishers, as well as
hundreds of textbook titles and tens of thousands of books with Barnes & Noble.
Vendor Type
Digital Edition Platform – online/hosted
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